The Unwritten Rules: The Six Skills You Need to Get Promoted to the Executive Level

by John Beeson

Overview

Maximize your chances to get promoted to the executive level

As predictable career paths have become extinct in most organizations, managers aspiring to the C-level job are left to their own devices to determine how to advance their careers. Even in companies committed to talent development, guidance to aspiring executives is often vague and contradictory. This happens, executive coach John Beeson argues, because executive promotions are made based on the decision makers' intuitive sense of whether or not a manager can succeed at higher levels within the organization. Beeson decodes these leadership criteria—the unwritten rules—that companies use to make decisions about who gets promoted and who doesn't, and identifies the six core "selection factors" that are imperative for success at the executive level

• Demonstrating strategic skills
• Building a strong management team
• Managing implementation
• Exhibiting the capacity for innovation and change
• Working across organizational boundaries
• Projecting executive presence

Filled with stories of managers who successfully climbed up the executive ladder-and some who struggled-The Unwritten Rules is an invaluable resource for aspiring executives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780470585788
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	10/19/2010
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

John Beeson is principal of Beeson Consulting, Inc., a management consulting firm specializing in succession planning and top talent development, executive assessment and executive coaching, and organization design and change. His articles on succession planning and talent development have appeared in the Harvard Business Review, Across the Board, and Business Horizons.

For more information about the book, please visit www.unwrittenrulesbook.com

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Table of Contents

1 Deciphering the Code 1

2 The Feedback That Really Counts 21

3 Factor 1: Demonstrating Strategic Skills 43

4 Factor 2: Building a Strong Management Team 69

5 Factor 3: Managing Implementation 89

6 Factor 4: Exhibiting the Capacity For Innovation and Change 109

7 Factor 5: Working Across Organizational Boundaries 131

8 Factor 6: Projecting Executive Presence 153

9 Career Development Strategies 179

10 Navigating Career Dilemmas 207

11 A Final Challenge To You—And Your Organization 221

Notes 229

Acknowledgments 233

About the Author 235

Index 237